The Calamity
by AbyssKeeper
Summary: Vincent winds up in an unknown land and finds some similarities to his home and a killer is on the loose. Meanwhile, Vanille wakes up from crystal stasis in a different world, is it possible for her to get back to Gran Pulse? Not a Van/Vince pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy XIII. This is purely a work of fiction meant to entertain people.

* * *

"How is the work going?"

"Very well, Mister Tuesti, although some of this rock is much harder to break though than the other stuff," the young man replied as he handed a small box to the dark haired man.

"As long as we're making progress," Reeve commented as he slipped back inside the base with the box.

He walked over to a table covered in small items that had been unearthed and started to empty the box, examining each item. As he carefully placed each item on the table, his cape wearing friend, Vincent Valentine, walked over and looked over the new items.

"More dead materia?" Vincent asked as he grabbed a chunk of materia-like crystal.

"We seem to be finding more and more of it now. And not just here in the crater, but all around the foot of the mountain ring," Reeve answered with a curious tone.

"Well after the last few years, who knows what was shook loose."

Some shouting from the other room caught the attention of both dark haired men and they just lightly shook their heads.

"You think they'll ever get along?" Reeve asked with a light chuckle "I mean even Barret has accepted Shinra as a friend."

Ever since the events with Deepground a year ago, things had drastically changed. A little more than a month after the events, Reeve had learned that what was left of the Shinra company had evacuated Junon and several towns after the mass disappearance from Junon. Since then, Rufus Shinra had been able to pull the Shinra Electric Power Company back onto it's feet and had been working closely with the WRO, the World Regenesis Organization, and Barret Wallace. All the Mako reactors had been decommissioned and dismantled, recycling the materials to assist Barret in oil refinement and creating other power sources. Rufus Shinra may be the president, CEO, and owner of the Shinra Company but he now had to answer to Reeve, and the members of AVALANCHE.

Cloud had proposed they try to recover the black materia from the northern cave, to which most of the others thought him crazy. After Rufus, Reeve, and Vincent agreed on the idea, the others unanimously agreed, Vincent being the one to change their minds. That proposal lead to the construction of the base in the dig site. The base camp was built to hang over the bottom of the cave as to not intrude upon the available dig area and was suspended by numerous support structures mainly connected to the sides of the crater.

Before the dig site base had started being constructed, Rufus had suggested they power it with a small-scale Mako Reactor, which inevitably lead to an argument with the members of AVALANCHE. After a lengthy discussion as to why, solar, wind, and oil, power would not be feasible in the Northern Cave, and that there was no ecosystem that would be damaged by the use of a reactor, Rufus was permitted to construct a Mako reactor in the Cave to power the base and all the equipment.

Since the base had been finished, and the dig team had been working, Cloud and Rufus had been non-stop fighting about one thing or another.

As Vincent grabbed a bracelet and started to examine it, the door to the room where Cloud and Rufus had been fighting opened with a hiss. The blond hero stormed past the dark haired men with the white suit wearing CEO calmly following him into the room.

"What was it this time?" Reeve asked without looking away from the book being used to catalog everything.

"I was just curious as to why Cloud is so obsessed with finding the Black Materia," Rufus answered using a dismissive tone.

"You implied I was being controlled again," Cloud growled.

"I just said that it is a fools quest to continue looking for the Black Materia."

"You did agree to fund this, Rufus," Reeve pointed out. Vincent had taken to stoically observing the interaction.

"That was before I knew all the details. We are searching for one materia, buried miles down, under millions of tons of solid rock," Rufus was almost laughing at how ridiculous it sounded.

"So we will stop looking for it," Reeve stated in a matter-of-fact way.

"What!" Cloud shouted.

"We will continue to excavate these artifacts and if we happen to find the Black Materia, well, good for us," Reeve chuckled as he finished speaking. Before anyone else could speak, the radio clipped to Reeve's belt crackled to life.

"Sir?" Reeve quickly grabbed the radio.

"What is it?"

"You need to come down here and see this."

Reeve stood up and grabbed his thick jacket off the wall and headed out to the lift. The two blonds and the cape wearing gunslinger sat in silence for several minutes before anyone of them even moved. Cloud eventually sat where Reeve had been and continued to catalog what had been excavated. A few minutes later, the loud engine for the lift was heard and shortly after Reeve appeared in the door to the lab. He waved for the three other men to follow him and they did without question.

When they entered the lab, which had several high-tech machines meant for analyzing materials, the three men were stunned. They slowly walked over to the object in the middle of the room and simply stared dumbly for several moments. Rufus was the first to lay his hand on it and nearly shouted in surprise.

"That's-" but Rufus did not know how to finish that thought.

"Materia. The entire thing is one, single, piece of live materia," Reeve stated.

"Are you sure?" Vincent asked, although he was unsure as to why. Reeve just nodded in response.

"But, who could carve materia? Into this level of detail as well," Cloud examined the materia statue a third time.

Vincent walked around it and glanced at a large circular object that had no apparent purpose. His crimson eyes took in every detail of the materia statue, each individual hair, the detail of the woman's face, the way her hands looked like they had been holding another pair of hands, and the way she was curled up. It was an amazing art work in Vincent's opinion.

The gunslinger lay his gauntlet covered hand on the statue and a strong power surged through him. He knew the power was Chaos, one of the WEAPONs made by the planet, specifically designed to herald the coming of Omega. Chaos surged again, and Vincent heard a voice in his head.

_Fang?_

Chaos' power surged through Vincent once again, much stronger than before. He felt the materia crack under his hand and looked up briefly. He saw the confused expressions on Rufus' and Cloud's faces and moved to look behind him. The materia cracked again and a bright light shone between his fingers. Vincent moved to shield his eyes just before the materia exploded, throwing him back.

* * *

The cape wearing gunslinger slowly opened his eyes and sunlight instantly pierced into them. He slammed his eyes closed and sat up before climbing onto his feet. Feet pounding the ground alerted him and in an instant, Cerberus was in his hand and he was running at the sound. He leaped high into the air, fired three warning shots at the squad that had been approaching, kicked the weapon out of the leaders hand as he landed, got her arm into a lock, pushed her down onto her knees, and held Cerberus to her head. The other squad members slowly set their weapons down as he glared at them but something caught his eye.

He looked down at the weapon he had kicked away from the leader, who he currently had hostage, and saw very familiar symbols on the blade of the odd looking sword. The symbols were a perfect match to the Cetra language.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked the leader.

"Lieutenant Lightning Farron," He looked down at the growling woman and finally noticed her bright pink hair "Of the Cocoon Emergency Teams and Refugee Aid."

"What?" Vincent was hoping he misheard her as his eyes widened.

"We're CETRA for Etro's sake!"

**So this is another random idea of mine. Let me know what you think and I might consider continuing it. I know there are some errors in it and some partially developed paragraphs and I will fix that IF I decide to continue this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Up and at 'em, Sunshine!" Fang shouted cheerfully as she threw the drapes open, the blinding light from the sun piercing into Lightning's eyes.

"What the hell, Fang!" Lightning shouted back at the Pulsian huntress.

The pink haired soldier quickly rolled over and looked at her clock. Glowing blue numbers proudly stated that the time was 6:12 AM, one hour and and forty-eight minutes before Lightning had to report in for work... Three minutes before her alarm... Fang was laughing softly to herself, obviously amused at how Lightning was not a morning person in any sense of the term, the pink haired soldier turned back to Fang, who had her hands on her hips in a victory stance.

"You know my alarm was about to go off, right?" Lightning was struggling to keep her temper under control.

"Obviuosly, but it's so much more fun to wake you up like this," Lightning felt her eye twitch and her lip start to curl as Fang spoke "Well I'm going back to bed, have fun at work."

"What time did you wake up?"

"Early enough to be nice and ready to torture you like this," Fang chuckled. With a furious, and bloodthirsty growl, Lightning dove at the huntress and tackled her to the floor.

Two hours later, even though Lightning tried her hardest to tear the huntress' head off her shoulders, Fang was still alive and the pinkette was sitting at her desk. Her arms were propped up on her chair's arm rests and her face buried in her hands. As Lightning waited for her throbbing headache to go away, she lifted her head and looked out her office window, directly at Cocoon quietly sitting atop its crystal pillar. Whenever Lightning looked upon the dead world that had been nothing but utopia of lies, she inevitably thought of her friends and her sister, the six others that had helped kill the false paradise.

Serah, Lightning's sister and the catalyst of Cocoon's demise, who is now married to Snow Villiers. Snow was the leader of a vigilante group called NORA back on Cocoon but now is an officer of the Cocoon Emergency Teams and Refugee Aid, law enforcement division. To put it simply, Snow was a police officer and Lightning was his boss. Sazh Katzroy, the former civilian pilot is back to piloting civilian ships and primarily resides in New Nautilus with his son Dajh. Hope Estheim lives with Lightning and her roommate, Oerba Yun Fang, as his father unfortunately did not survive Cocoon's fall. Fang had originally been in crystal stasis until only a couple of months ago. Fang along with her adopted sister, Oerba Dia Vanille, had been the two to become the beast Ragnarok and ultimately save the population of Cocoon, countless still passed but many more had survived. Sadly, Vanille was still in crystal stasis, sleeping deep with the crystal pillar. How Fang managed to get out was far beyond anyone's guess.

Even though the former l'Cie had been awake for two years, it had been almost eight years since The Fall, as the event was now titled. In those eight years, four cities had started to be built. New Bodhum, New Nautilus, New Palumpolum, and New Eden. Though the progress was far better than any could hope for, there was a vast list of problems. The top and most threatening was the New Sanctum, a government created by PSICOM remnants, Sanctum loyalists and the survivors of Eden. Luckily for the rest of the Cocoon populace, none of the New Sanctum were stupid enough to start a war when everyone was desperately trying to get the world on its feet.

The door opening snapped Lightning out of her thoughts and she turned to face the intruder, who was a young brown haired woman named Karen, she was just a private in CETRA. The young private looked nervous, almost scarred of speaking to Lightning, understandable as it was known she was one of the small group that had defeated Orphan.

"Yes?" Lightning asked, trying to keep herself from hissing about her headache.

"We got another one, Lieutenant," Karen said softly, prompting Lightning to sigh loudly.

When the duo made it to the lobby, which is also the main office space, Lightning instantly looked towards the large bulletin board which was covered in photos. Photographs of areas around New Bodhum and dead bodies, an illustrated chronicle of an extremely violent serial killer. It was a baffling case, to say the least. The only pattern the unknown subject had was they only attacked young couples, was unarmed, and beat the couple until they were almost unidentifiable. Other than the obvious overkill and extreme rage, there was nothing to go on. Nothing was taken from the victims, no sexual aspect to the assault, and the female of the couple was always beaten much worse. The case had everyone in the precinct on edge only because they were now on the fourth pair of murders.

More than anyone else though, Lightning was absolutely terrified. Even though the murders were scattered throughout New Bodhum, she knew Snow and Serah were at risk. Even though she once resented Snow, he had proven himself worthy of Serah several times over, both during their time as l'Cie and in the last two years. The fact that Snow was a giant compared to most other men, was now a trained officer, and carried a CETRA issued sidearm, would most likely prevent the murderer from attempting to take his and Serah's lives.

The front doors opening pulled Lightning's attention away from the board and to the two detectives that just entered.

"Find anything?" The Lieutenant of the precinct called out.

"A boot print!" the male detective called back as they made their way over the lieutenant. Lightning also made her way over to hear the details.

"It's a medium sized, standard issue CETRA boot," The female detective stated as she dropped the photo of the print on a nearby desk.

"Wait, one of us did this?" Lightning stated more than asked as she picked up the photo.

"It's possible, but the print could have been there for hours before the murders."

"So once again, we have nothing," Lightning huffed as she dropped the photo back on the desk. She may not have been trained to be a detective or regular police officer, but she wanted the psycho off the streets as much as everyone else.

"Maybe not. Once the C.S.I.s are done processing the area we may have a lead," The male detective said with a shrug.

"I like possibilities," The Lieutenant said before he returned to his office.

Lightning spent the next few hours among the other officers and detectives, trying to help with the case in any way she could. She felt the headache returning from the stress of not having anything to go in the case. The killer seemed to know forensics inside and out so there was no trace of them anywhere even though they beat two people to death with their fists. Lightning leaned against a desk and glanced out a window towards Cocoon, just in time to see a bright light race up the crystal pillar. When the light reached the apex, there was an almost blinding flash and shortly after a red light flew across the sky at an astounding speed. She followed it until it met the ground, many miles away from New Bodhum, sending what must have been an immense amount of dirt and stone into the air. The pink haired lieutenant spun around quickly and saw the rest of the officers staring blankly at where the light had landed.

"You four! Get a buggy, now!" she shouted, already heading towards her office to retrieve her sword.

Within minutes, Lightning and four officers were on their way to where the light had impacted. A big part of her was hoping that the light had been Vanille, if it was, Fang would ecstatic. Although Lightning knew Fang would never admit it, she knew the huntress had been severely depressed the whole time she had been awake. Fang and Vanille had been inseparable during the l'Cie days and Fang never wanted Vanille to be alone.

However, when the group of five had reached the landing zone of the light, things turned out very different from what Lightning had hoped.

* * *

"We're CETRA for Etro's sake!" Lightning shouted at the man that currently had a gun to her head.

She felt the gun leave her head and the hold on her arm weaken. Lightning lunged forward, cartwheeling over her sword, grabbing it midway, and landed on her feet. Blaze Edge was now in gun mode and pointed at the mystery assailant. Lightning looked him over, quickly analyzing the gun in his right hand, the clawed gold gauntlet covering his left, the black clothing, pointed steel plates on his boots, the tattered red cape that covered most of his upper body and the lower part of his face, his long messy black hair, the red head band, and his bright crimson eyes. His eyes were extremely fascinating to Lightning as she knew crimson was a rather unnatural eye color.

The man tossed his gun over to Lightning, it landed at her feet, and he raised his hands into a sign of surrender. Lightning stooped to grab the weapon and noticed the custom tri-barrel and mechanism design with wolf heads instead of iron sights, along with the odd pendant hanging from the grip.

"Cuff him," Lightning commanded.

A few minutes later, they were on their way back to New Bodhum, the mystery man in the back between two officers, his hands cuffed behind his back. Lightning was going to have a fun day explaining this one.

* * *

**W.R.O. Dig Site, The Northern Cave**

"What are we going to do?" Cloud asked with a worried tone. He was deeply worried about his friend because he had just watched the gunslinger disappear in a bright light.

"Go over the security footage and figure out what exactly happened. Then we will work on figuring out what happened to Vincent," Reeve replied calmly.

"I'm more curious about the girl that we traded Vincent for," Rufus said with a joking tone. Cloud hated Rufus' sense of humor.

"I'm sure we all are," Reeve commented as he looked into the medical, the quarantine zone more specifically.

When the light that Vincent vanished into faded, they had seen that the materia statue was gone but in its place was a young woman. She was unconscious and not knowing what else to do, Reeve had her moved to quarantine and once she was moved, a round of decontamination showers was ordered. Now the three were staring at the young woman, trying to figure out if she was a threat or not. Under normal circumstances, they each would have assumed her to be non-threatening but after Deepground, mostly the Tsviet Shelke, they knew not to judge by appearance.

The young woman was a redhead, her hair in pigtails, possibly eighteen to twenty years old, and wore a light pink halter top, an orange and yellow skirt with a pelt of some sorts on the back, beige boots, numerous bracelets on both arms, three necklaces, and long strings of beads. Her clothing was strange, to say the least, to the three men observing her. Even though she looked to be peacefully sleeping, Cloud had his fully assembled Fusion Blade on his back, Reeve had an assault rifle slung under his arm, and Rufus undoubtedly had his custom shotgun/rifle combination weapon tucked in his coat. As she slept, they heard her mumble several words in either a different language or sleep induced jibberish.

"Well," Rufus started, getting Cloud's and Reeve's attention "My theory, based on where she was found, is she's either a Cetra or a new incarnation of Jenova," the other two men nodded at his words and reached for the grips of their weapons, getting ready for the possibility of a new Jenova.

**Well now that there is more, what do you think? Interested yet? Oh, and yes, all the information in this chapter is relevant to the story, and no, I'm not telling the connection between the Cetra and the CETRA yet. You have to wait for that.**

**Please leave a review.**


	3. Chapter 3

Vanille sat up and stretched her arms above her head, unwittingly pushing out her chest. She dropped her arms to her sides and opened her bright green eyes at the feeling of a bed. The clean white sheets, along with the clean white walls and strange machinery against one wall were strange and foreign to her. Taking a deep breath told her that the air was different, unnatural and void of any normal scents. It took a few moments but she figured out what the air was. Sterile.

The redhead looked behind her and saw the large mirror in the wall which, unknown to her, was a window from the other side. She climbed off the bed and examined herself in the mirror, making sure her pigtails were hanging correctly, and her clothes and accessories were straight. After ensuring she was looking her best, Vanille wandered over to the machines and started poking at them, trying to figure out their purpose. A small smile on her lips the whole time, blissfully unaware of the three men on the other side of the two way mirror watching her curiously, trying to decipher her behavior.

"What do we do?" Cloud asked the men flanking him.

"We could try talking to her," Reeve stated with a shrug.

"We don't know if it's safe to lift the quarantine yet," Rufus counter stated.

"Does she look sick?" Cloud asked, pointing at the redhead that was still intensely studying the medical equipment.

"She could be carrying a virus or something that she is immune to and we're not. Or she could be, I don't know, a Jenova remnant," Rufus quipped.

"How could she be part of Jenova? Every person related to Jenova had silver hair," Cloud replied, irritation in his voice.

"You don't have silver hair," Rufus shot back with venom.

"So childish," Reeve muttered under his breath as he went into the medical bay to access the quarantine zone.

The door opened with a quiet hiss and Vanille quickly turned towards it expecting to see Fang or one of the other l'Cie but was met with the sight of a dark haired man in a blue outfit. She sensed the friendly aura radiating off the man and decided that he was trustworthy.

"Hi, I'm Vanille. Can you tell where I am and where Fang and the others are?" Vanille asked the man quickly. He stared at her blankly for a moment before slowly turning around and leaving the room, the door hissing shut behind him. Vanille was very confused at his behavior.

When Reeve returned to the two blondes, they had stopped fighting and were looking into the room with looks of confusion that expressed how Reeve was feeling.

"So either of you understand any of that?" Reeve asked. Both blondes shook their heads and Reeve got an idea.

He found a pen and a notepad then quickly made his way back into the room with the strange girl. He made some simple gestures in trying to convey that he did not understand her and that she should write down what she was saying. Once she did that and handed the notepad and pen back, Reeve once again returned to the two blonds. He showed them the writing with a blank expression.

"Is that Cetran script?" Rufus asked.

"I'm not sure," Reeve answered "Do you have any Cetra experts employed?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Rufus answered back.

"What about Shelke?" Cloud suggested "If I understand correctly, she has Lucrecia's knowledge who was a Cetra expert."

"Yes! Of course!" Reeve proclaimed cheerfully.

"Great, I'll call Cid to come pick us up," Cloud pulled out his phone and started to leave.

"No, we have to keep her a secret," Rufus commanded, meaning the girl in quarantine, instantly earning him a death glare from Cloud.

"Why?" the ice in Cloud's tone was almost physical.

"Think about it. How would the world react upon finding out that she is either a part of Jenova of a Cetra," Reeve had a clear image of what would happen "If she is part of Jenova, society would explode into chaos and anarchy. Especially since you forced my company to reveal the cause of Meteor and Deepground. But if she is a Cetra, she will be world famous in a matter of hours. She will be harassed for information about the Cetra culture or for answers that many people have spent their lives looking for. And what happens when they find out she has no answers to give?"

"So you're saying, she gets viewed as the new Jenova and people will try to kill her. Or she gets viewed as a messiah but when people find out she isn't, they try to kill her. How insane are you?" Cloud spat at Rufus.

"Our world is still far too fragile for a discovery of this magnitude. The people are still looking for guidance, a leader to pull everyone together. It may not seem like it, but Shinra, Sephiroth, and Deepground united us for a time," Reeve stated to Cloud, agreeing with Rufus "Call Shelke. Just tell her we need her knowledge of the Cetra to decipher some writings."

"You want me to lie to a mutual friend?" Cloud was dumbfounded by Reeve.

"It's not lying Cloud. We do need her to decipher some Cetra writing," Reeve waved the notepad to accentuate his point. Cloud let out a loud sigh and walked off to call Shelke.

* * *

Vincent calmly sat in the uncomfortable steel chair resting his hands on the table and paid little attention to the wall size mirror. He knew it was an interrogation room and the mirror was a window from the other side, being a former Turk he had been both an observer and interrogator. Although, the Turks had very different forms of interrogation from normal types. The gunslinger did not care that he was under arrest, it was understandable as he did attack members of the authorities. What he did mind was they had him surrender his holster, gauntlet, and cape, but that was understandable as well.

Something he was curious about was how he had been able to understand the people. When he could, he tried to read the lips of whoever was talking and saw that the movements of their lips never matched what they were saying. He decided that they were, in fact, speaking a different language but the beast Chaos was translating it for him. That made him curious to see if Chaos would translate what he said so the people could understand him.

The door to the room opened and in walked the pink haired woman from earlier. She silently approached him and placed his gun on the table, a cold glare fixed on him the whole time. Vincent noticed how cold the glare was and how it must make other people shrink in fear but he had seen and been through far too much to let a simple glare get to him. He met her icy glare with his schooled neutral expression, to let the woman know she did not threaten him in the slightest. Their gazes locked for a long moment, the pinkette trying her hardest to crush the raven haired man under her glare.

"You'll get more answers by actually asking something," Vincent finally said, slipping in a hint of boredom into his tone. It was obvious his comment had irked her.

"Fine. Who are you?" the woman demanded as she sat across from him.

"Vincent Valentine."

"Why did you attack me and my squad?"

"You surprised me," Vincent answered with an offhanded tone, further irritating the woman.

As much as Lightning wanted to me furious at the man and his response, she understood. He was most likely a Sanctum l'Cie from many years ago, probably decades or more, wakes up in a completely different environment and heard a group quickly approaching. The caped man was most likely just acting on the self preservation instinct.

"Where are you from?" Lightning asked, getting control over her temper back. Vincent did not see any harm in being honest.

"Junon, born and raised," Lightning raised an eyebrow at his response, she had never heard of that city before.

"What was your career?" Lightning was trying to stick to questions that would get them the most information on the man.

"I was part of the Department of Administrative Research for an electric power company," Vincent felt things like the truth about his job and Shinra was best left a secret for now.

"And which company was that?" Lightning followed up. The gunslinger knew better than to think that his luck would be merciful now of all times.

"The Shinra Electric Power Company."

The door to the opening intterupted the questioning and a moment later, Colonel Amodar leaned in and waved for Lightning to follow him. She calmly left the room and shut the door but Vincent remained in his position and just focused on the two way mirror. He was not sure what to think of the place. From what he had seen, there was far more life in it than Gaia, and the technology looked to be about two centuries ahead but had enough similarities to Gaia's that it would be easy for him to learn.

"What is it, sir?" Lightning asked Amodar, her superior officer that never acted like it.

"We've been scouring the network for information on him or the company he claims to have worked for."

"And?" Lightning prompted.

"There is nothing. Which means he's either making it up or is a l'Cie from a time before the Cocoon network existed," Amodar said with a mix of sympathy and intrigue.

"But that... That predates the War of Transgression by a couple centuries, doesn't it?" Lightning was dumbfounded. Amodar responded with a slow nod.

"He needs time to adjust and privacy but we're not going to keep him in a cell. We may able to foot the bill for a motel room or something until he is back on his feet."

"He is also going to need someone to keep him company, show him around, and get him used to everything," Lightning suggested more than pointed out.

"Are you volunteering, Lightning?" Amodar asked with a smile and a chuckle.

"No," Lightning replied very quickly, and decided to say more when she noticed Amodar's very questioning look "But I know someone who needs something to do."

"Alright then, bring them in on Monday, we'll let mister Valentine have the weekend to relax and get used to his temporary housing," Lightning saluted and turned to go back to her office.

"Oh and Lightning," She stopped and turned to the side to listen "Go home and relax. That's an order," Amodar said with a laugh "I'll have a couple of officers escort Valentine."

Lightning obeyed her superior officer and packed up to return home. As the pinkette was climbing into her blue four door car, she realized something that made her hand stop halfway to the ignition. This was the first day in several months, the entire time Fang had been awake, that she would be returning home with the sun still up. As much as she was obsessed with the case, she was already thinking about taking a quick shower and reading a book on the front porch.

When the lieutenant arrived at her modest three bedroom house, she spotted Serah's car in the driveway, and swiftly, but carefully, pulled in beside it. Lightning paused for a moment before opening the door, bracing herself for any of Fang's comments, surprisingly, none came when she opened the door. All she was greeted with was Hope slouching on the couch, bag of chips in hand, and his school books open on the coffee table in front of him. He leaned his back, into a rather uncomfortable looking position and instantly sat up.

"L-Lightning!" the platinum-blond teen sputtered almost choking on a chip or two.

"Don't get crumbs on my couch," Lightning responded with a false threatening tone. Two sets of feet coming from the kitchen got Lightning's attention and she saw Fang and Serah round the corner.

Fang was wearing faded black low rise jeans with her Pulsian belt through the loops, her Pulsian sandals and a black halter top. A modest outfit that still showed off her tanned, muscular body and tattoo. Her hair was just as messy as ever, and her necklace hung around her neck. Serah on the other hand, was wearing a red summer dress, that fell to her knees, with a white and pink floral design, and sandals. Her hair hung loosely but straight, and she had her engagement necklace.

"You're home early," Serah commented with a smile as she walked up to and hugged Lightning.

"They get tired of your jokes, Sunshine?" Fang taunted.

"Very funny," Lightning said over Serah's shoulder at Fang and released Serah "You two see that light earlier today?"

"It was a little hard to miss," Serah remarked while Fang just gave an 'are-you-serious?' look.

"Well turns out it was a l'Cie waking up. And he's older than you, Fang."

"Well I'll be damned," Fang said with mock impression "He must be some kind of Cocoon celebrity then."

"Actually there is no information about him in the network. Or the business he worked for, or his home town."

"Weird," Serah said as she turned back to the kitchen "Maybe he's lying about something. Trying to hide who he really is."

"Now why would he do that?" Fang asked the smaller pinkette, following her back into the kitchen.

The conversation continued without her, so Lightning proceeded to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After grabbing some clothes to change into and stripping down, Lightning paused to examine her reflection. Specifically, the marred skin in the center of her chest. She knew the others had lost their l'Cie brands all together but she had not. Hers was white and scorched, just the same as Fang's was during their journey. Every time she saw the scorched brand, she wondered why hers had lingered. Perhaps she would be needed to be a hero again someday. Until the reason was revealed, Lightning would do everything in her power to ensure no one ever saw the white brand.

**Don't have much to say other than: Please leave a Review. Those that leave reviews are awesome and deserve cookies.**


	4. Chapter 4

"You're kidding, right?" Fang laughed while Lightning remained stoic.

"You know I don't make jokes," Lightning's statement made Fang stop laughing in an instant "It won't be difficult at all. Just show him around and let him know how things work."

"Sunshine," Fang started to get Lightning's attention "I'm still learning how things work. You really think I'm the best guide?"

"Yes."

"Now why is that?"

"Because everyone else is busy. And you're much more of a people-person than me," Lightning stated.

"A pissed off behemoth is more of a people-person than you, Sunshine," Fang laughed. She was glad Lightning just released an irritated huff instead of throwing a punch "Seriously though, can you tell me a bit about the person I'm going to be playing tour guide to?"

"Tall, doesn't talk much, name is Vincent Valentine, and from what I have seen, a skilled fighter," The pinkette listed as she steered her car into a parking spot.

The soldier and the huntress walked into the base, being careful to avoid the area with all the information pertaining to the ongoing investigation. She knew she would be fired in less than an instant if she let a civilian, especially someone like Fang, learn anything about the case. When they reached the room where Vincent was recovering his confiscated items, the two women were just in time to see the gunslinger slipping on his gauntlet.

"Interesting choice of weapons," Fang referred to his gauntlet and the three barreled revolver on the table. Vincent did not reply.

Fang grabbed the gun and started to examine the unique firearm. Paying no mind to the two women, Vincent grabbed his cape off the table, unfolded the long tattered red cloth and set the buckles back in place. Without a word, he pulled his gun out of Fang's hands and slid it into the holster on his thigh. The pendant gently hanging from Cerberus' grip.

"So your name's Vincent Valentine, eh? Quite a manly family name you got," Fang joked with a wide smile. Vincent merely crossed his arms in a passive manner and leaned against the table with his gaze fixated on Fang "Heard you pinned Sunshine here. You must be quite a fighter," Fang complimented, Vincent remained silent and few long awkward seconds passed "I know you said he didn't talk much," Fang said to Lightning "But this is just ridiculous," Fang started to fidget under Vincent's gaze and another long moment of silence passed "Do you talk at all? Are you deaf or mute?" Fang said quickly, clearly getting agitated by Vincent's silence and unbroken, unblinking gaze.

"You can learn a surprising amount about a person's psyche by letting them talk," Vincent finally said. His rough, emotionless voice surprised Fang as it was deeper than Snow's voice which is not what she was expecting at all.

"Oh, so he does talk," Fang joked "Well what did you learn about me, Red?"

"You hate silence, enjoy talking, respect skilled fighters, and most all, enjoy getting a rise out of people. Judging by what you're wearing, you have narcissistic tendencies, love to be the center of attention, and you're holding onto the memory of someone very dear to you," Fang was taken aback and Vincent glanced over to Lightning "How accurate am I?"

"Dead on. I have to go now, so enjoy each others company," Lightning said as she turned and went towards her office.

"Since you know my name, mind sharing yours?" Vincent asked politely as he followed Fang towards an exit.

"Oerba Yun Fang, and don't you forget it," Fang said proudly as she lead the gunslinger.

"I doubt you'd let me," Vincent muttered under his breath.

Fang wandered aimlessly through New Bodhum, almost nonstop talking the entire time, with Vincent calmly following her and speaking occasionally. They passed by many small shops, the beach, the anti-beast perimeter fence, the airfield, some other shops, restaurants, and they took a short break at the large city park in the center of New Bodhum. The tanned woman dropped onto a bench as Vincent leaned on a close by streetlight.

"So tell me about yourself," Fang said with her kindest smile, but a rather commanding tone. Vincent waited an extended moment, mulling over what he should say to the woman he met only a few hours prior.

"I'm an expert marksman with a variety of weapons, was trained in several forms of martial arts, and a plethora of investigative and interrogation skills," Vincent listed nonchalantly.

"What're you a spy or something?" Fang laughed. Vincent let out an amused grunt.

"Could say that. I would call myself a professional investigator or an uncertified detective," Fang nodded slowly in response to Vincent's words.

"Hungry?" She suddenly asked.

"Rather," Vincent replied.

The dark haired duo made their way back through New Bodhum, towards Fang's favorite little diner, which was actually owned and operated by the former NORA member, Lebreau. They were directed to a table that was basically reserved for Fang, but Fang was stopped by the dark haired business owner while Vincent proceeded to the table and took a seat, making sure his cape was over the back of the chair.

"So who is that?" Lebreau asked with a smile and a friendly intrusive tone. She may now be twenty-seven, owning a new business, dressed more moderately, but she had the exact same personality as when Fang first met her.

"Old Cocoon l'Cie," Fang replied.

"Really?" Lebreau sounded genuinely impressed "Surprised he's not freaking out over Cocoon being crystallized or anything else."

"He's aloof, detached from everything, I would say."

"Maybe he's just keeping his emotions to himself. And plotting some big l'Cie plan," Lebreau laughed as she turned to head back into the kitchen.

Vincent had spent the time staring at the menu, eavesdropping on the conversation. Normal people would not have been able to hear the voices of Fang and her friend over the noise, but Vincent was almost as far from normal as one could get. When he actually focused on the menu in his hands, he found he was able to read the language flawlessly. Another thing Chaos was responsible for, the gunslinger knew that without the dark beast, he would have been lost and unable to function in this world. Not to mention that without Chaos in him, he would have died decades ago and multiple other times between then and now.

"So what're you getting?" Fang asked, shattering Vincent's focus on his thoughts, as she unceremoniously dropped into the other chair at the table.

"I'll just have the same as you," Vincent responded, placing the menu at the edge of the table.

They ate in silence but carefully and stealthily studied each others behavior, looking for any sort of oddity. Vincent observed how Fang put a fair helping of salt on her food, how she took rather large bites, and leaned over her plate in a seemingly possessive manner. That behavior connected with her hair style, bracelets, tattoo, and name, Vincent deduced that she had not always been part of the more civilized world. On the other hand, Fang's observation of Vincent gave very different results. He didn't add any condiments, sat with a minimal relaxed demeanor, held and used the cutlery with perfect pose and elegance. Fang could easily see that the cape wearing man had from a higher level of society. The one thing they had in common while they studied each other, both were aware of the other scrutinizing them.

* * *

"This is not a Cetra writing," Shelke flatly stated to the three men that had been hovering around her.

"What do you mean?" Reeve asked innocently "It looks like Cetra writing.

"It is, it's just, not the usual type of writing that was found."

"Well what does it say?" Rufus interjected, clearly getting impatient.

"My name is, but names don't translate so I don't know what the name is. Can you tell me where to find lightning, fang, snow, hope, and another name," Shelke read out. She looked up at Cloud, Reeve, and Rufus, expecting some sort of explanation but all she got was the three men exchanging confused glances.

"Reeve, Cloud, a moment," Rufus finally said, motioning to the door. The three left the room and Shelke just let out a loud sigh as she stretched out on the couch she had been sitting on "So our Cetra or Jenova remnant might be insane or looking for some obscure location or artifact."

"Far as I know, the only place with snow, lightning, and _fang_, is the area outside the mountain ring," Reeve explained with a shrug "Not sure where one would go to find hope though."

"Maybe those were all names," Cloud finally spoke up, Reeve's and Rufus' gazes locked on him instantly "I mean, she looks like shes from a tribe or something. Maybe lightning, fang, snow, and hope are names of people she knew."

"That makes perfect sense," Rufus stated "But we can't use Shelke as our translator. It will take us a week to have a conversation that should only take an hour," Reeve nodded slowly as Rufus spoke "It will take years to teach her our language and decades for any of us to learn hers."

"Too bad we don't have a materia for translating. That would make things much easier," Cloud snapping his fingers almost startled Reeve.

"Bahamut!" Cloud was hyper-aware of the confused stares from the other two men "Every summon is some kind of being condensed into a materia. After using them for so long, I learned that Bahamut is the oldest and knows the Cetra language."

"So you think you can get Bahamut to be our translator?" Rufus sounded skeptical. Reeve did as well but had the decency to hide it.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Cloud argued.

"I'll allow it. Go get Bahamut," Reeve said with a slight smile.

Cloud just gave a quick nod before taking off towards the landing pad. He was going to have be dropped in Edge then make his way to his house to access the armored crate that held his materia. The blond knew he was going to have a large amount of explaining to do to Tifa once this entire ordeal was settled. She was a good listener, and very patient with him, so the explaining part of everything should go over smoothly. He hoped. Rufus waited until Cloud was out of sight to start talking.

"Your sure this is a good idea?"

"No," Reeve chuckled "But what else can we do?" Rufus shrugged in reply to Reeve.

"We don't even know what she is."

"Until we can actually talk to the girl, I'm just going to assume she's from a different world altogether."

"You know who else was from another world altogether?" Reeve just let out a sigh at Rufus' question "Jenova."

It took a couple of hours, but he was racing up the road towards 7th Heaven with a deadly focus. He leaped off Fenrir before the large motorcycle was fully stopped, giving it a kick so it spun around into a parking spot. Cloud threw the door to the bar open and flew past the counter to the stairs, barely catching a glimpse of Barret sitting at the bar talking to Tifa, who was standing on the other side. The blond went into his room, opened the safe in the closet, then the armored crate, dug out the red orb of Bahamut, quickly closing both secure containers. He flew back down the stairs and past his friends, who were thoroughly confused now, out the front door, jumped onto Fenrir and sped off. Just five hours after leaving, Cloud returned to the dig base, Bahamut in hand.

"That was fast," Reeve stated, genuinely surprised at how swiftly Cloud had returned.

"Didn't stick around to chat with your wife?" Rufus asked, in a tone purely for irritating the blond warrior.

"Let's just go see if this works," Cloud almost muttered back, determined to not let Rufus get to him.

As the three walked towards the quarantine room, Cloud reached out to Bahamut. He commanded the ancient dragon spirit to only translate language, not actually appear or use its power until requested by Cloud. The spirit held in the materia complied without resistance and Cloud inserted the materia into an armband.

Vanille lay on the bed in the middle of the room, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the gentle hum of the lights only because there was nothing else to do. The man in blue had returned a few times to give here some food, which she found odd but tasty, but every time she tried to speak with him, he would just nod and give a friendly smile. It quickly became obvious to her that he did not understand her. The door to the room hissed open and the man blue stepped in with two people behind him. One man was a blond wearing an all white suit with a long coat, the other Vanille almost jumped off the bed to go hug but stopped when she realized that it was a man with spiky blond hair and a face unusually similar to Lightning's. Vanille climbed off the bed and stood facing the men.

The blond, male version of Lightning casually walked up to Vanille and handed her an armband with a shining red orb in it. As soon as the band was safely on her arm, she felt a strange sensation run though her. The sensation was warm and friendly with a subtle level of power in it, it made Vanille think of Fang for a reason unknown to her. She really wanted to know what exactly she was wearing because it started to feel very familiar.

"What is this thing?" She asked, noticing how the three men looked taken aback.

"It worked," The blond in white said, very surprised.

"Hold on one second," the man in blue said to the blond "Miss, do you understand us?"

"Yeah? Why shouldn't I?" Vanille asked with a smile.

"Because we're actually speaking two very different languages. That," the Lightning lookalike pointed at the red orb "Is translating for us."

"Oh... That's pretty neat!" Vanille once again said with a smile.

"That aside, allow me to introduce us. I am Reeve Tuesti, commander of the W.R.O. That," he pointed at the blond in white "Is Rufus Shinra, president of the Shinra Electric Power Company, and the last one is Cloud Strife."

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Oerba Dia Vanille," She replied with a very shallow bow.

"Why don't we move this conversation elsewhere?" Reeve asked no one with a smile "I'm sure you're sick of this room."

"A little," Vanille giggled with a smile. The three men moved to allow her to leave the room first, and they entered the medical area.

"I hope you're not afraid of needles," Reeve commented as one of the on site doctors spotted them. Vanille turned and gave him a questioning look "We're going to need a blood sample."

"Just standard procedure, to make sure you're as healthy as you look," Rufus said with a friendly tone and smile, which revolted Cloud.

Reeve waved the doctor over and requested the the female professional to take a blood sample from the young redhead. After filling a vial with blood, the doctor carefully placed it into a machine, closed the expensive device and turned it on. She walked over to Reeve and started to talk in a very official tone.

"I would like to do a full physical examine, if that is okay, of course."

"Just standard procedure, Vanille. We'll wait outside," Cloud commented, shooing the other two men out of the medical area.

"Someone going to explain?" Shelke asked as the three men left the medical area, surprising them "And yes, I saw the girl."

"This one is on you, Reeve," Cloud stated as he started walking away.

"Good luck," Rufus commented as he started off in the other direction.

The dark haired man in the blue suit let out a sigh as he leaned against the wall. He started to explain the events leading up to and how Vincent disappeared into a flash of light. Shelke listened without any interruptions and could not believe any of it. Then again, it was not the first time Vincent had done something seemingly impossible.

* * *

As the day was drawing to a close, Fang decided to take Vincent to go meet Serah and Snow. She wanted to know how they would react to the mystery man. The two walked through New Bodhum, examining the how the city seemed to come to life at dusk. It was the time when all the night businesses opened, all those on day shift were now free, and school had long since ended for the day. Vincent stoically looked at all the happy people enjoying the end of the day, excitedly talking one thing or another, watching the sun fall, or just smiling for no apparent reason. It was a genuine happiness the gunslinger had realized did not exist in his world.

The happiness in his world was a mask, hiding the true misery that so many had bent to their will for so long. Shinra used it to control the masses, employing those that only cared about money, or furthering their own agenda. Out of that, hatred was spawned. The result of the rampant, directionless hatred, were things like Shinra's war against Wutai, AVALANCHE itself, the elite faction of superhumans called SOLDIER, and Sephiroth. But after the Sephiroth crisis and the near end of the world at Deepground's hands, the hatred slipped away and the misery and false happiness returned. Vincent knew that it would take his world centuries to recover, generations to breed actual happiness and restore innocence.

Seeing the people of this world made Vincent feel strange. He was unaffected by the seemingly contagious happiness and remained looking stoic. Comparing his world to this one, and seeing how much better this world was, made him hate it. Something about the genuine happiness of the people made him sick, made him hate every person that dared to to look at him. He could not see why these people were allowed to be so happy when his world was still suffering and everyone on it was on the edge of simply giving up on life. Unknown to him, he had fallen victim to the worst cause of global misery; envy.

As they walked through the streets, Fang observed Vincent when she could. She saw his expression slowly darken until he was glaring at anyone that made eye contact. Glancing down, the huntress noticed how his hand now hovered near the grip of his gun as he walked. Everything about his demeanor reminded her of a captive behemoth, waiting for the slightest provocation for an excuse to attack something or someone.

Neither said a word the entire trip to Lightning's house and thankfully, Vincent only glared at people. Fang saw Snow's vehicle in the driveway, which meant both him and Serah were visiting, even though only Hope was home. The dark haired huntress swung the door open and held her arm out to signal Vincent to go inside. She closed the door behind them before calling out.

"I'm home! And I brought a friend!"

"Well we're having a party in the kitchen!" Snow called back, making Fang chuckle lightly.

The huntress lead the caped gunslinger to the kitchen and he felt three pairs of eyes on him and he was stunned silent as he looked over their owners. A small pink haired young woman with soft blue eyes with the most friendly expression he had only ever seen on Aerith, a large blond man with blue eyes and a smile Vincent could only describe as goofy, but neither of them were interesting to the gunslinger. The last pair of eyes belong to a young man, who could only be around sixteen years old, with platinum-blond hair and bright green eyes. His bright green eyes shone with a peerless intelligence and Vincent instinctively knew that there was a hidden edge in them, an edge that was razor sharp and if used correctly, could have even the most stalwart soldiers cowering. The one thing that had Vincent in shocked silence was, he had only ever known one person with those exact traits in just his eyes and that man almost destroyed Vincent's world. The gunslinger could feel his hand aching for Cerberus but commanded it to remain at his side.

**This update took a bit longer than I wanted, but still way faster than my other stories. Blame writers block, hate that thing. As you can probably see right now, Vincent's side of the story is more interesting to me right now. Vanille's side will pick up though, especially since she can talk to people now. Oh, just as a teaser, next chapter should be when the connection is revealed, I know I'm evil for saying that. **

**Please leave a review.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Edit: Updated this chapter because i read it over after posting and just hated how many errors slipped the net. Enjoy the better version.**

* * *

**Sorry for the delay, this chapter is a bit gloomy, and enjoy.**

"Nice to meet you, Vincent," The burly blond said cheerfully as he extended a hand to Vincent. The gunslinger grasped his hand in a firm handshake.

"That's Snow and I'm Serah. His wife and Lightning's sister," the small pink haired woman added while extending a hand. Vincent also shook her hand but kept his grip gentle as Serah looked so frail when standing next to Snow.

"Hope Estheim," The teen sitting at the table said with a light nod. He received a light nod from the gunslinger.

"I guess as long as Fang is showing me around, I'll be seeing you all quite a bit," Vincent looked over to Fang when he paused "Correct?"

"Of course," Fang laughed.

Back at the New Bodhum Guardian Corps base, Lightning was packing up to return home for the night. She was angry that once again, the case wasn't going anywhere. Every crime scene had no trace of the culprit, no witnesses, and with more day gone the case got just a bit colder. It had been determined that the killer had a cooling period of two weeks, which was putting even more stress on those investigating the crimes. However, Lightning was mentally leaving the stress of the case at her desk just as she had been doing the entire time it had been in progress.

As she was leaving, she spotted something in Amodar's office that she really wished she had not. A man in a suit with two soldiers at his sides, the New Sanctum emblem across their backs. Without hesitation, Lightning strode over to her superior's office and opened the door. When the man in the suit turned, she saw that it was Primarch Darius. He used to be the head of the Sanctum Templars but after the loss of Jihl Nabaat, Yaag Rosch, and Barthandelus, only he was left to step up and take the chair of the Primarch. Lightning only knew his face and name and was glad up until that moment that was all she had known.

"Lightning Farron," Darius said in a tone that clearly showed how much he despised her "I always expected you to be taller. But I guess the ignorant will treat anyone like a hero, even mass murderers."

"Lieutenant Amodar, everything alright in here?" Lightning asked, completely ignoring the rude comment. The Primarch spoke before Amodar had a chance.

"A couple of days ago, after that light came from Cocoon, something flew over New Eden and landed near New Bodhum. You know anything about it?" the more Primarch Darius spoke, the more Lightning wanted to shove her sword through his gut.

"We investigated the site where it landed and found nothing," Lightning lied, only because the Primarch had made it very clear over the last couple of years that if it was up to him, everyone outside of New Eden would be living in poverty and basically be slaves.

"Really? Well here is what we saw," Darius handed a datapad to Lightning and it had a blurry picture of the ball of light but two massive black ribbed, red webbed wings could also be seen "It was also moving at an incredible speed, faster than we could ever hope to travel."

"What is that supposed to be?" Lightning asked as she handed the datapad back to the Primarch.

"By the appearance and the readings we got as it flew over, either an exceptionally strong Undying or a fal'Cie."

"Well if it's a fal'Cie, you had better find it before I do," Lightning growled in response. She was not entirely growling at Darius, a part it was because there was obviously something Vincent was hiding. Lightning decided she was going to find out what, but she was going to have to be stealthy about it.

* * *

It had been a rough start, but Vincent had quickly adapted to the new world he had come to. The group of former l'Cie, as they called themselves he later found out, were very kind and helpful to Vincent, especially Serah Villiers. He met Sazh and his son a week or so after the others and about two weeks after meeting the pilot, started working alongside the CETRA after he had somehow learned about some minor in progress cases and solved them. It annoyed Lightning to no end that Vincent had found out about the lesser cases and it irritated her further that he seemed to be nothing more than a regular human. Albeit with a few unusual habits, but regular nonetheless.

The caped gunslinger was eventually, but hesitantly, let into the investigation on the serial killer rampaging in New Bodhum. There had been another pair of murders, another young couple, before Vincent started working with them and they were quickly closing in on the predicted time for the next murders. Each day that passed added to Lightning's already intense frustration and headaches caused by stress. One morning however, she woke up feeling fully relaxed and was in an exceptionally great mood, despite the terrible events happening.

Lightning had a small smile on her face when she woke up thirty minutes earlier than her alarm. After deactivating the alarm, she immediately proceeded to the shower and spent some extra time under the steaming hot water. Leaving the shower and going into her room to dress, she saw that she still was ten minutes ahead of schedule, realizing that she had probably used most if not all of the hot water. She allowed herself an actual breakfast and found herself humming along to the music on the radio as she drove to work.

When she entered the base, things looked no different from the previous days but even that did not disturb her great mood. The pinkette started to suspect that Fang drugged her but shrugged it off and briefly considered asking if the huntress did drug her so she could get more of it. She stepped into her office and turned on the television, which only had access to the news channels, on the shelf beside her desk before sitting down. As the news droned on Lightning let the serial killer case fall to the back of her mind as she filled out, filed, and shredded, the paperwork she had been neglecting. Even the paperwork could not put a dent in her upbeat mood. But that quickly changed just before noon.

"This just in, the Pulsian fal'Cie Bismarck has been found dead in Sulyya Springs!" Lightning's attention was instantly locked on the screen after those words left the anchorman "It is not clear what or who killed the fal'Cie but it has been confirmed that they were capable of using magic, more on this story as it comes in," Amodar suddenly bursting into Lightning's office almost made her jump.

"Sir?" Lightning asked quickly.

"As troubling as a dead fal'Cie is, we have more victims. And a witness this time," Amodar's tone was serious but Lightning could detect the microscopic hint of relief.

The duo quickly went to the main office where all the detectives were and saw Vincent standing silently next to the witness. The witness was a middle aged man with tanned skin, dark hair, and looked absolutely horrified. Lightning and Amodar approached him slowly and in a gentle voice, Amodar spoke.

"Can you tell us what you saw?"

"I saw that couple get killed last night!" the man nearly shouted.

"What time, would you guess?" Lightning asked.

"I-I... I dunno. Three A M, I think," the man was looking around as if he were expecting the killer to jump him at any moment.

"Did you see the attacker, what they looked like?" Vincent asked in a neutral tone.

"Uh, yeah. No taller than the young lady," the man said, referring to Lightning "The couple were just walking along and-"

"Just tell us about who did it, not what they did," Amodar softly commanded trying to keep the man from terrifying himself into silence.

"Right, right. Hair was like white-"

"Like white?" Lightning asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, not white but not gray. Like a... like-"

"Silver?" Vincent suggested.

"Yeah! Exactly! And red eyes, not like his," the man pointed at Vincent "They were glowing, well, more like shining. They were like lights. Well the one I could see was glowing."

"They had one eye?" Amodar sounded confused.

"I-I don't know. They're hair covered the left-no-right side of their face."

"Long silver hair, shining red eye, as tall as or a bit shorter than Lightning. Won't take too long to find this man," Lightning could tell Amodar was trying to hide his smile as he spoke.

"Man? No, not at all. It was a woman," The man was obviously still terrified but he looked to be calming down.

"A woman?" Vincent asked quickly.

"No offense, but how could a woman beat young, healthy, fit, men into a bloody pulp? I mean, unless she had been training for this her entire life," Amodar speculated aloud and Lightning caught the spooked look on Vincent's face.

"She saw that I saw what she did. She walked right up to me, smelled like flowers and blood, and said that I could go to you guys if I wanted. Said she was only starting and you wouldn't find her unless she wanted to get caught."

"Why did you wait until eleven in the morning to report this?" Vincent said to the man, fury in his tone.

"I thought she was waiting for me to try to go to you guys. Thought she would kill me if I said anything," The man tried to cower into the chair to escape Vincent's glare.

"What was she wearing?" Amodar asked, trying to keep the conversation from straying.

"Uh... Black sweater, black gloves, black jeans – skinny jeans, and boots – CETRA boots."

"Lightning, tell the others. Get a city wide search going, we are not letting this woman escape," Amodar commanded.

Several hours later, after night had long since fallen, Lightning returned home. She was surprised when she entered her house to find Sazh, Dajh, and Vincent, there as well as the usual company. The pinkette exchanged greetings and proceeded to the kitchen for a glass of water. Conversation was on the topic of the dead fal'Cie so Lightning was barely listening but started paying attention when the topic found its way to Vanille. The former l'Cie shared some memories about times during their journey while Vincent stood silent in a corner of the room.

"I hope she wakes up soon. It makes me sick knowing she's alone in the Pillar," Fang said while toying with a bracelet that was vastly different from her others. It was a gift from Vanille when they were just kids.

"I want to see Vanille," Vincent said loudly, catching everyone off guard "And you can't tell me that after all this time, and with Fang waking up, you haven't tried to dig her out."

"No its just..." Snow started to say.

"Why do you want to see Vanille?" Sazh finished.

"I have my reasons. Which I will tell you when I see her," the gunslinger stated with a light shrug.

"We'll go tomorrow," Lightning stated, earning confused looks from the others "He's like me. Either we take him, or he will go by himself."

Just as Lightning said, the next day they piled into Sazh's airship and flew to the Crystal Pillar, careful to avoid New Eden's airspace. They arrived at the landing pad built to the side of the pillar and silently made their way into the tunnel leading to Vanille. This structure had been dug out after Lightning woke up, by her order, and was the only reason why Fang had been safe after she woke up. When they entered the main chamber, they had to go up several flights of stairs built on what looked like scaffolding but they soon reached the balcony that extended just below the crystallized Vanille. Vincent walked up to her and looked over her crystal form, studying every small detail.

"No," Vincent whispered to himself as he recognized her hair, hands, and face "No," Vincent said a bit louder "No, no, no, no."

"Something the matter?" Serah asked, making Vincent notice that only he had stepped up to Vanille as he turned towards the group.

The gunslinger made thousands of small calculations in his head and everything fell into place.

"Right before I came here, to Gran Pulse, a crystal statue that looks exactly like Vanille was excavated by a team under the command of one of my friends."

"Wait, how could-" Snow started to say.

"I'm not from Cocoon. I was born on Gran Pulse," that earned Vincent an odd look from the others "At least two thousand years from now."

* * *

Vanille lay in the bed and stare blankly at the white curtains covering the window. The clock in the corner of her vision told her that she had been lying there for more than two hours but she could not bring herself to actually change that. She could not help it, the redhead had simply lost her will to continue. Once again, she felt tears fall from her eyes and roll across her face until they fell to the pillow.

Several weeks ago, Reeve had some clothes for Vanille delivered to the base and tried to work out some living arrangements. Cloud had volunteered to let her stay with Tifa and Denzel since Cloud spent most of his time away on missions for the WRO or Reeve and Barret had taken Marlene back but still visited often. Vanille's introduction had been a strange one, mainly because a WRO helicopter had basically landed in the middle of the road to let out Cloud and Vanille close to 7th Heaven. It was far from the first time a helicopter had landed in the street to drop off or pick up Cloud, but each and every time, a crowd of onlookers gathered.

The two walked into 7th Heaven, Cloud expecting it to be busy, which was surprisingly empty. A few customers sat at a corner table and a girl with jaw length straight black hair sitting at the counter. Her voice told the blond warrior that it was the Ninja from Wutai, the massive four pointed shuriken at her feet was also a telltale sign. Tifa had been leaning against the wall talking to the young girl but looked up to Cloud as he entered and the blond saw the brawler give a strange look to Vanille. Yuffie spun around on the bar stool and her smirk told Cloud something bad was about to happen.

"Told ya, Tifa. Choco-Butt has been seeing another woman," Yuffie announced loudly. Tifa shook her head with an amused smile on her lips.

"Who's your friend?" Tifa asked softly. Yuffie jumped off the stool and sprinted across the room, stopping a few inches away from Vanille, making her jump. The redhead had only ever seen Lightning move that fast.

"Yeah, who're you? We have to know what name to put on your headstone because Tifa is gonna kill you for stealing her man," Yuffie said with a wide smile.

"Yuffie, he's not having an affair," Tifa stated calmly, amusement obvious in her tone, as she walked over to the trio.

"Well he's obviously not gonna admit to it in front of you. Ain't that right, Choco-Butt?" Vanille looked at Cloud as Yuffie spoke. The warrior rolled his eyes and stepped forward to embrace Tifa "I'm Yuffie Kisaragi," Yuffie announced loudly to Vanille "World renown ninja, thief, princess, and hero. Who're you carrot-top?"

"I'm Oerba Dia Vanille," Vanille finally answered, a smile plastered on her face because of Yuffie being so... Yuffie, as the rest of AVALANCHE had always said "Why do you call Cloud Choco-Butt?" Vanille could not help herself and she heard Cloud audibly sigh.

"Because his hair looks like a chocobo's ass," Yuffie said with a chuckle, Vanille admitted that Cloud's hair did remind her of a chocobo's tail feathers "Oh! And the woman he's groping is Tits, but she insists on being called Tifa for some reason."

Tifa walked up to Vanille and Yuffie, swiftly smacking the ninja upside the back of her head.

"It's nice to meet you, Vanille. Any friend of Cloud's is a friend of ours," Tifa extended a hand out to Vanille. Vanille felt nothing but warm, friendly, safety radiating from Tifa as she took her hand and shook it "Would you like anything to drink?"

"No thanks, I'm fine," Vanille replied with a soft smile. Two things about Tifa surprised her, how much she was reminded of Serah, even though she only knew the younger pinkette for a very limited time, and how strong Tifa looked. Except for the tan, brand, and tattoo, Tifa's arms were just like Fang's which meant that Tifa was far stronger than she looked.

"Do you mind talking with Yuffie for a little bit?" Cloud asked the redhead, who reply with a shake of her head "Tifa," he said nodding towards the kitchen and the two of them set off for the room, once they were inside the kitchen of the bar Cloud resumed talking "Is it okay with you if we let Vanille stay here for a while?"

"I could of used a bit more of a heads up that you wanted a friend to stay with us for a while," Tifa answered softly with a smile.

"She's not really a friend," Cloud replied, thoroughly confusing the brawler "She's a Cetra," Tifa's eyes widened quite far at those words "She woke up from some kind of crystal stasis, as Rufus called it."

"Crystal stasis?" Tifa asked.

"I didn't understand what him and Reeve were talking about. But the important part is, Vanille is a two thousand year old Cetra and she is asking about her friends or family."

"And you guys didn't tell her?" Tifa almost shouted. She quickly adjusted her voice into a whisper but she was just as dumbfounded.

"We didn't know what to say. The only reason we can even talk to her is because I gave her an armband with Bahamut in it."

"You gave her-" Tifa put up her hand as if asking for a moment to herself, then crossed her arms under her bust "What does Vincent think about all this?" Cloud just looked away from Tifa "Cloud?" his vision fell to his boots "What happened to Vincent?" Tifa's tone was both worried and annoyed.

"He vanished when Vanille woke up."

"Vanished?"

"There was a crystal statue, Vincent touched it, a bright light, then he and the statue were gone and Vanille was in the statue's place."

"When did this happen?" Tifa felt terrible for interrogating Cloud, but he had a habit of not telling her anything.

"Couple of weeks ago. I didn't say anything because we're sure that Vincent will just pop back eventually," Tifa shrugged in agreement after Cloud spoke.

"Vanille can stay here. I'll use Marlene's old bed, Vanille can have our room," Tifa told Cloud. He realized what was wrong with Tifa's plan

"Wait, what about-"

"I hope that couch in your office is comfy," Tifa laughed, Cloud gave her an irritated look "Should have told me what happened earlier," Tifa left the kitchen with a smile on her face as she left the kitchen. Cloud shook his head and leaned against the white counter.

The red head met the other members of AVALANCHE, except for Vincent, and Shelke during the week following her introduction to Yuffie and the next few weeks passed without incident. Vanille helped Tifa around 7th Heaven in order to repay the kindness of letting her stay with them. However, it was one morning that gave Vanille a very unpleasant surprise. It had started just like any other morning, Vanille got up, took a quick shower, got dressed, and started downstairs to start her day with Tifa. When she was halfway down the stairs she heard the middle aged pilot, Cid Highwind, talking.

"-s just cruel," a lighter being flicked could be heard as Cid paused "Someone should tell the girl. Wouldn't you want to know?"

"I want to tell her, so does Cloud and Reeve. It's just hard to figure out the right words," Tifa's tone told Vanille that she was conflicted and worried "How exactly do you tell someone that everything they once knew is long gone?" Vanille was curious as to who they were talking about.

"I dunno, maybe something like this: Hey Vanille, we're sorry for not saying this earlier, but you were a giant crystal for two thousand years."

"Two thousand years?" Vanille heard herself shout. A moment later, Cid and Tifa appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Vanille..." Tifa whispered, obviously feeling terrible "I... We wanted-"

Vanille felt tears start to roll down her face and her vision became blurry as the words fully sank in. She had been in crystal stasis for two thousand years. Fang, Lightning, Sazh, Hope, Snow, Serah, all of them. Long gone. Vanille had been awake for weeks and no one had told her how long she had been asleep. They all even knew, and no one told her. Vanille turned and ran up the stairs to Tifa's and Cloud's room, the one she had been lent, and slammed the door behind her. She threw herself into the bed, hugged the pillow and let the sobs wrack her body. The redhead had been welcomed into the wonderful group of people and they had betrayed her, hid the truth from her. If it was possible, Vanille would of willed herself to die right at that moment.

An unknown amount of time later, Vanille heard the door open and someone walk over to her. The person sat down on the edge of the bed and placed a hand on her shoulder. The gentle touch was obviously Tifa and Vanille did not react to her presence.

"Vanille, I'm really sorry for saying anything. We-" Vanille rolled onto the other side of the bed and Tifa sighed "I can't imagine how you feel or how you must hate us right now, so I'll let you be. I'll bring you some lunch later," With that said, Tifa left the room.

It has been two weeks since that day and Vanille had barely even left the room she was lent in that time. The normally cheerful, and somewhat, bouncy redhead had not felt a smile grace her lips in that entire time. After finding out that those she had adopted as family had passed away numerous centuries ago, Vanille had lost her will to live.

**Please leave a review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Update: Fixed many errors that I missed in my self-beta.**

"How is Vanille?" Cloud asked Tifa with a solemn tone.

"Same as before," Tifa answered quietly.

"Still isn't talking?"

"Nope," Tifa replied "I've tried everything I know and she doesn't even notice I'm there."

"Hmm..." Cloud hummed as he brought his fist to his mouth in a sign of deep thought.

"I don't blame her," Barret commented.

"We did keep the truth from her even though we should have told her as soon as we could communicate," Reeve stated.

The entire group, minus the gunslinger, was in 7th Heaven, gathered because of the predicament. Tifa had kept the bar closed for the day so AVALANCHE's semi-monthly gathering would not be interrupted. The members of AVALANCHE sat around a table that was actually two tables pushed together, Nanaki sat on his haunches between Cid and Barret, Cait Sith was sitting in the middle of the table, and Marlene and Denzel were off to a nearby park with some friends.

"Grandpa would have known what to do in this situation," Nanaki muttered.

"Any ideas there, Fluffy?" Cid asked the robotic cat.

"Prove to her that we will help her get used to this world?" Cait Sith uneasily suggested.

"I already tried that," Tifa remarked.

Cloud suddenly stood up and walked over to the stairs. Without breaking his stride, he ascended, leaving the rest of AVALANCHE oblivious to his plan. The other members exchanged questioning glances and shrugs then wordlessly agreed to wait and see.

Vanille lay on her back staring at the dull gray ceiling. Gray like the buildings, sky and ground of Edge. It perfectly fit how she felt as she lay there in the bed that belonged to two people she had considered friends not too long ago. Several times the thought of leaving via the fire escape had rolled through her head but she could not do that. Vanille had no idea where to go, what to do, or who could be trusted. It may be Gran Pulse, but two thousand years of civilization had rendered it a completely alien world. At least she had Fang when she woke up on Cocoon.

She heard footsteps getting close to the door, the steady pattern of noise they created made it obvious that it was Cloud. Vanille rolled onto her side and pulled the blanket up over her head in hopes of warding off any unwanted conversation. The door opened and she heard Cloud walk over to the dresser, open several drawers, then walk over to the bed. With a silent swish, the blanket was pulled entirely off the bed, leaving just Vanille in her pajamas and the pillows. She and Cloud made eye contact before he dropped a small stack of clothes on the foot of the bed.

"Get showered and dressed," Cloud commanded, not one hint of any other emotion in his voice.

Vanille was hoping he would leave but Cloud remained at the foot of the bed, standing stoically. After a very long minute, Cloud rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. He walked to the side of the bed and lifted Vanille off the bed and carried to the adjacent bathroom and put her on the floor.

"I'll see you downstairs in thirty minutes," he turned on his heel, left the room, and could be heard descending the stairs.

Vanille decided to give in, thinking that he might get Tifa or Yuffie to actually bathe her if she resisted further. Or do it himself if she pushed him far enough. After a decent length shower, long enough to get clean and skipping brushing her hair, Vanille put on the clothes Cloud picked out, plain white set of underwear, white ankle socks, skinny jeans, and a short sleeve polo shirt; which had all been bought for her by Tifa. The redhead admitted she liked being clean again as she put on a pair of black running shoes. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she noticed that all of AVALANCHE was present and they all looked to Cloud in both bewilderment and confusion. Cloud ignored them as he stood and walked over to the door, waving for Vanille to follow him. Vanille was handed a pair of riding goggles by the blond as he climbed onto his giant motorcycle, which he called Fenrir, and motioned for her to climb on behind him.

The technically young Pulsian actually enjoyed the ride on Fenrir. The wind in her hair, the howling in her ears, along with the growl of the engine, and watching everything race by. She noticed they were leaving Edge and started to wonder why. Looking up, the redhead saw the ruins of Midgar looming closer. The great skyscraper that used to be Shinra's headquarters was leaning at an unnatural angle, because it had been bent when Omega had been summoned, and looked ready to topple at any given moment.

Cloud slowed Fenrir to a stop in front of a twenty foot tall fence than ran all the way around Midgar. A large red sign with white letters was hung on the gate of the fence that read:

WARNING

AREA EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

AUTHORIZED W.R.O. PERSONNEL ONLY

CAUTION: HIGH VOLTAGE

FENCE IS ELECTRIFIED

CONTACT WILL BE FATAL

On one side of the sign was the emblem for the World Regenesis Organization and on the other side was the Shinra Electric Power Company logo. The signs were hung in countless places along the miles of fence. Vanille was so fixated on the sign and the fence that looked like it belong around a prison that she was not aware of the post with a green panel on it right beside the bike. Cloud removed the glove on his right hand, put his hand on the panel and the gate on the fence started to slide open. Once they were through, the gate started to slide closed but Vanille was more interested the area.

The massive crumbling web structure above them, the gigantic holes in the ground leading to the Midgar caves and Deepground facilities, the mountainous ruins of the eight reactors, and the titanic obelisk of the central pillar. Even though it was her first time in Midgar, Vanille felt sick. To her, the area reeked of death, evil, and unspeakable sadness. Vanille had yet to hear any of what happened in or to Midgar but everyone on the planet got the same gut feeling when the entered the largest graveyard in history. Cloud steered Fenrir to the church that miraculously still stood where it had since before Midgar became the floating city.

Cloud motioned for Vanille to climb off the bike and they entered the church. The hinges had long since given up on holding the thick wooden doors and the fallen pillar from Cloud's battle with Kadaj still lay where it fell. The blond swordsman helped Vanille climb over the fallen column and the redhead felt herself gasp.

Yellow and white flowers grew everywhere they could, surrounding what looked to be a small spring of water with a slight greenish-blue tint. Just beyond that, a giant sword was stabbed into another fallen column and covering the the column and part of the wall behind the sword, were photos. Dozens of photographs depicting all manner of smiling people, adults and children, and Vanille immediately began to examine each one.

Several photos on one end displayed a man with dark hair and a headband, a chubby man with a baseball cap, and a woman with a cowboy hat. Beside those were some pictures of a dark skinned man and woman in a desert town. They were both smiling and it took Vanille a long time to realize that she was looking at pictures of a young Barret Wallace and his wife. The next few pictures were of an old man and a little Nanaki and only one picture had the old man, young Nanaki, and two beasts that looked similar to the present Nanaki. More pictures were of a little dark haired girl and her parents, the eyes of the little girl told Vanille it was Tifa and her parents. Then a few pictures of a young Cloud and his mother, not one had his father. One picture depicted a young dark haired man in a suit, a woman with long brown hair and a white lab coat, and another dark haired man with a lab coat. Taped to the blade of the sword were a few pictures of a dark haired man with the sword on his back, each picture he had a big goofy grin, reminding Vanille of Snow. There was a small number of photographs, only six, with a brown haired, green eyed, woman in a pink dress. One picture had the dark haired version of Snow and another dark haired man beside him, the other man had the sword on his back. On the wall behind the sword and collection of photos was a large poster of a man with long silver hair and peaked bangs, black clothing, green eyes with slit pupils, and a sword so long it was cut off by the poster.

"Who are all these people?" Vanille heard herself ask quietly. Her vision blurred as tears tried to escape.

"Friends, family, loved ones that have been lost," Cloud almost whispered "Except him," he pointed at the poster, Vanille heard the hatred in Cloud's voice "That is the man that almost destroyed the world."

"Then why have a poster of him in here?" Vanille could not help but ask.

"Because he also saved it. It weren't for him, none of us in AVALANCHE would have the happiness we have now. Or even met," Cloud explained. He leaned against the column before continuing "You had better get comfortable Vanille. I'm going to tell you a story, and it's going to take a long time."

* * *

"Two thousand years?" Fang shouted "Vanille's gonna be buried for two fucking thousand years?" the huntress sounded depressed, outraged, confused, and furious.

"Hang on just one minute," Snow said to Fang, in hopes of calming her "How do we know he is from the future?"

"I was thinkin' the same thing," Sazh agreed with Snow.

"Your stuff does seem a bit old fashioned for it to be from the future," Hope commented.

"I'm aware," Vincent replied.

He had always been a skeptic when it came to the theory of time travel but if he was indeed two thousand years in the past, his very presence could be severely altering his own time. A solution appeared in Vincent's mind as he pondered. He asked Sazh to fly them to a specific set of coordinates and the others just shrugged and followed them onto the shuttle. None of them believed Vincent for a moment about being from the future mostly because his gun was on radically lower level of technology from Lightning's gunblade. As they got close to the coordinates Vincent had requested, Fang recognized the twisted and gnarled peaks from stories and pictures. The gunslinger urged Sazh to land in a clear area at the foot of the mountains and they all left the shuttle.

"So why are we at Dragon Peaks?" Fang asked no one. Vincent ignored her as he examined the future location of Nibelheim.

"Dragons? You kidding me?" Snow asked, clearly astonished.

"In two thousand years," Vincent began, getting their attention. He realized then that if he told them any specifics, it could cause a ripple that would change his time in unimaginable ways "A man will be born here. He will go on to become a great General and hero."

"Really?" Serah asked, she had always enjoyed stories of mighty heroes.

"It is here the same man will lose his sanity and become a brutal murderer that will go on to attempt to destroy the world," Vincent continued.

"What?" the group of former l'Cie said in unison.

"How?" Snow asked quickly.

"I can't say," Vincent said as he shook his head.

"Why?" Fang shouted.

"Because if I say anything too specific and one of you try to change something, it will cause unfathomable changes to history," Vincent calmly explained "And I know for a fact that none of you would let history happen as it should if you knew what I currently know."

"So we just have to take your word for it, that you're from two thousand years in the future?" Lightning asked with a suspicious tone. She was itching to pull out Blaze Edge and put a bullet between his eyes.

"Unfortunately, yes," Vincent reply "However, I know exactly who you're looking for, Lightning. And it's not a woman. It's not even human."

"What is it then?" Sazh asked impatiently.

"A monster?"

"A fal'Cie?"

"A Cie'th?"

"An alien?" Vincent heard hope ask. The other guesses just blended together into noise.

"I can't say," the gunslinger reply.

"Wait a second," Snow said loudly "You should be able to tell us whatever you want," the large man knew everyone was looking at him curiously "If you tell us something and it changes the future so you aren't born or die or don't get brought here, it would cause you to not tell us anything because you didn't exist. But since you didn't exist-"

"You wouldn't be able to tell us anything about the future, eliminating the changes," Hope interrupted.

"Therefore you would be sent right back here creating a paradox," Serah finished.

"A paradox?" Fang asked with a raised eyebrow. Vincent noticed Lightning was staring at her sister as if she had suddenly grown another set of arms.

"In this context: A circle of events in time that repeats for eternity until the loop is somehow broken," Serah explained with a smile.

"Wow, Sunshine, didn't know your sister was such a geek," Fang joked.

"I read a lot," Serah retorted with a playful pout.

"So Vinnie here is a paradox?" Fang asked.

"I would assume so," Hope answered.

"I'm still not saying anything. It's too much of a risk."

When the group arrived back in New Bodhum, Vincent did not follow them back to Lightning and Fang's house. The gunslinger went in a different direction and none of the former l'Cie saw him for the next two weeks. When the night of the killer's next attack was upon the city, Vincent was on the streets. He used Chaos to multiply his awareness and senses, hoping he would be able to catch the killer, which he knew to be Jenova. What he could not understand was, why the great destroyer in the Cetra legends was only killing a young couple every two weeks instead of wiping cities off the map. Vincent pondered the enigma as he roamed the streets, eventually coming to the conclusion that over the two thousand years prior to his time, history had become distorted because of poor translations and having to fill in the blanks when documents were lost.

When the moon was in position for 2AM, Vincent saw a very drunk couple stagger into an alley. It was obvious to the gunslinger what they were going to do, and the figure in dark clothing that was following them was going to an unexpected surprise for them. Vincent propelled himself onto a nearby rooftop, landing without a noise, and silently ran to the other edge to give him an aerial view of the alley. The couple was drunkenly making out leaving them oblivious to the figure approaching them. The stranger pushed the couple to the ground, causing the man to shout numerous slurred curses and just before the figure could start beating him to death, Vincent leaped.

He landed between the couple and the figure and in an instant, had Cerberus trained on the figure's face. Because of the darkness, he could only her cruel smile, shining red eye, and the silver hair that was much shorter than he remembered. Before he could react, Cerberus hit the wall of the building and clattered to the ground just as a fist came into contact with his jaw launching him backwards. Using a cartwheel to recover, Vincent landed on his feet and threw himself at the woman. His fist slammed into her gut, lifting her off her feet, and he used the momentum to send her crashing into the same wall Cerberus had hit. He heard her head bounce off the bricks but she was flying at him instantly. Calling on Chaos' power, he easily dodged her punches and kicks, all of which were perfectly aimed and executed. As if she had been trained by the military. Vincent ducked to avoid a spin kick aimed at his head and slashed upwards with his claws, not feeling them make contact, he quickly threw a punch with his right arm and followed it with his own spin kick. The woman had dodged all of his attacks with ease, prompting Vincent to use more of Chaos' power to increase his speed.

The woman grabbed a plank of wood off the ground and ran at him, inhumanly fast. Vincent readied himself to parry but just the woman got close to him, she vanished. A moment later, the plank of wood was breaking as it came into contact with the right side of Vincent's face. The woman used her momentum from swinging the plank to kick Vincent in the ribs, launching him into the wall. Vincent pushed himself off the wall and spun around, throwing numerous attacks at the woman. She evaded every attack and smiled at the gunslinger in a way that said she was having fun. Again calling on Chaos to move faster, Vincent still couldn't gain an advantage.

After several minutes of a stalemate battle, Vincent dove for his gun and took aim at the woman. He pulled the trigger halfway before thinking about what would happen to history if Jenova were to die right now. The hesitation was enough for the woman to kick Cerberus out of Vincent's hand and plant another kick on his collarbone. As he hit the ground, he rolled onto his feet and attempted to claw the woman again. The woman unexpectedly turned and ran off.

Vincent got up off the ground and once again retrieved Cerberus and holstered the weapon. Glancing down, he noticed something on his gauntlet. On the very tips of the gauntlet's clawed fingers, was a red liquid. He was surprised that he was even able to scratch the woman.

With that small amount of blood, the CETRA police would be able to test the DNA. Vincent knew it would be useless as Jenova had the ability to shapeshift, which he now speculated was an embellishment of the truth. Then again, revealing Jenova's identity may alter history but if Jenova was supposed to obliterate the Cetra and almost wipe out humanity, getting arrested should not be an obstacle. Thinking about that, Vincent immediately started to doubt everything his society knew about this era.


	7. Chapter 7

It was far too much to take in at once. Vanille felt terrible for making such a scene and being a pain to everyone who had shown her kindness. What she had heard and seen during her time as a l'Cie was a walk in the park compared to what Cloud and Tifa had experienced. Vanille had been asleep when her people were destroyed, but Fang had been with her the whole time. The redhead couldn't imagine watching Oerba burn to the ground and witnessing some mad man slaughter everyone she knew and cared for. Even when Cocoon fell, it would have been a great tragedy if Fang and Vanille had not been there, Vanille felt safe and confident because Fang had been there with her.

"Cloud?" Vanille asked to get his attention, being the first word spoken in over an hour "I'm sorry for being so much trouble for you and Tifa."

"Don't worry about it," Cloud reply without looking at her, he had his hand on the base of the Buster Sword's blade and was saying a silent prayer for Zack and Aerith "We would have been concerned if you had been unaffected by the news."

Vanille inexplicably chuckled at Cloud's words. Silence fell between them once again and Vanille took a deep breath of the fresh but empty air. The only scents on the gentle breeze was dirt, dust, steel, and pollen from the flowers, it made Vanille think of the entrance to Mah'habara as it had a very similar smell. The Midgar ruins greatly unnerved the young, yet ancient, redhead simply because there was no ambient noise. Only the occasional sound of steel creaking high above them or echoing out of the the Deepground facilities greeted her ears.

Something suddenly occurred to the Pulsian. There was one member of AVALANCHE that Cloud spoke of but she had not met.

"Cloud?" the blond turned to face her, no emotion crossing his features "Why haven't I met Vincent yet?" Vanille tried to sound innocent, cute even.

"He vanished when you woke up," Cloud watched Vanille drop her gaze and start looking guilty "It wasn't your fault, Vanille. Vincent will turn up safe and sound. He always does, somehow," Cloud almost chuckled at his words.

"Where did I wake up? I want to see it."

"Then lets get going back to 7th Heaven. I'm sure Reeve will be fine with you going up there," Vanille gave Cloud a bright smile.

The two rode back to Edge in silence. When they entered the bar, the other members of the group bombarded them with questions. Seeing Vanille with a smile again is what confounded them all but it was not the first time the blond warrior had surprised them. Cloud was able to wave most them off and directly approached Reeve.

"So how did you get Vanille to smile again?" The man in the blue outfit asked.

"Told her a story," Cloud reply with a shrug "She would also like to go up to the Crater, if that's fine with you."

"Of course it's fine with me. We've found plenty of relics with writing on them so she could be a great help," Reeve explained.

"Great," Cloud said with a smile "Just make sure to keep an eye on her. I would go but my work is starting to pile up."

"I'll bring Nanaki. He said he has nothing better to do," Reeve said with a light chuckle at the end "I'll be heading out in the morning so you may want to let her know."

The next day, Vanille was sitting in a WRO helicopter between Reeve and Nanaki, who had a specially designed seat. Yuffie lent her winter gear to Vanille only because Yuffie vowed to never be caught in the snow again, the young ninja hated it. As the helicopter descended towards and eventually touched down on the landing pad of the dig base. A young blond woman in full WRO winter gear approached the three climbing out of the aerial vehicle and snapped a salute.

"Anything interesting found while I was away?" Reeve shouted to be heard over the propeller engine that was speeding up to lift the vehicle into the air again. Helicopters could not be kept at the base as the engines would have trouble starting due to prolonged exposure to the cold.

"One of our expedition teams found a village buried to the southeast! They've been sending all the relics here for cataloging and research!" the woman shouted back as Vanille was pulling her two suitcases off the helicopter. It slowly lifted into the air until it was twelve feet up then lifted much faster until it disappeared over the ridge of the crater and the only sound was the digging tools far below.

"That's better," Reeve commented "This is Vanille Dia," he continued, introducing Vanille to the woman incorrectly "She is our expert on the Cetra language."

"What about Shelke Rui, sir?" the woman asked, trying to not sound confused.

"She will lend assistance when she is able. Translating the Cetra language is a volunteer position," Reeve stated "I'm not about to go Shinra lengths to translate everything."

He lead the young redhead to the cataloging room, which had been reassigned to a much larger room. Reeve explained what sections of the room were for what type of relics, a young man that had been cataloging pointed out the one corner of the room that was for the relics from the village that had recently been discovered. Vanille was given permission to explore the area and lend a hand when she was comfortable with her surroundings. Reeve was needed elsewhere, if the chatter from his radio was any clue.

On a whim, Vanille immediately went straight for the village relics. She took her time getting there though, looking over shoulders and examining what the WRO members were working with. The vast majority of the items Vanille could identify as things she had seen on Cocoon but decided to keep that fact to herself. It reminded her of the strangest thing she had learned about the world, Cocoon was gone. It was not crystallized or floating, the small hollow world was simply gone with only these trinkets to remind the world of what once was remained.

When Vanille approached the Village Relics, as the sign on the nearby table announced, she froze. Her mind went blank, her breath became quick and shallow, and her heart thundered in her chest, loud enough for her to hear it. A tear rolled from her eye and down her cheek, she slammed her eyes closed, and rapidly shook her head. She turned and ran blindly through the dig base, not stopping until she found her way into one of the woman's bathrooms. Retreating into one of the stalls, and locking it behind her, Vanille buried her face in her hands and let the tears and sobs wrack her body.

She thought she had come to terms with being irrevocably separated from the other l'Cie by knowing things could have been much worse. She knew she had to let go of the past so she could live, she could not allow it to destroy her. She knew that all she had of her friends and adopted big sister were memories but what she saw was a harsh reminder of what she had lost. Seeing the once majestic and powerful weapon had overwhelmed her senses. The sight of the once red and black, now rust orange and dull gray, double bladed lance had been the last nail of the coffin for her hopes of seeing the others. Oerba Yun Fang's lance was now just a relic of a time long since lost to history and Vanille could feel the cracks in her psyche spreading further into her being.

* * *

Vincent stood in a bed of yellow and white that stretched a vast distance across a rolling plain completely covered in grass. He silently watched the sun finish its climb over the horizon to begin its journey across the sky, occasionally glancing to his left, at Cocoon which he could just barely see the top of over the curvature of the world. A big part of him was refusing to believe that where he stood was the future location of a sacred site, Aerith's church. It was even more difficult to comprehend that Midgar would also stand here and the entire plain, as far as the eye could see from this spot, would be reduced to a barren wasteland.

Earlier that morning, the gunslinger had delivered the blood sample he had 'retrieved' to the CETRA labs for analysis. Swiftly leaving New Bodhum, he employed Chaos to find and take him to the locations of all the cities in the future. Unsurprisingly though, no towns or landmarks existed yet, the land still beautiful as it was untouched by Shinra or any human in that regard. Junon's sheer cliff, Mt. Nibel's treacherous paths, Da Chao, all had yet to be formed. He briefly considered visiting the important sites of future. Places like the Temple of the Ancients, the Forgotten City, and Banora. All except the Northern Cave, a tiny voice in the back of his mind had said that was something he did not want to see. However, the gunslinger remained here, in the field of flowers, watching the sun rise.

Thinking about places that had yet to exist and events that had yet to happen lead Vincent's mind to the topic of materia. It was widely known that materia was compressed lifestream that could grant amazing powers, yet there were none in this time. Taking into account the story of how the six l'Cie liberated Cocoon, Vincent theorized that materia was Gran Pulse's more passive way of choosing l'Cie. But if that was true, what created the Proto, White, and Black materia? After that came a more pressing concern: Were the WEAPONs fal'Cie or a kind of Cie'th? If they had been either of those, what is Chaos?

He recalled his many conversations with Chaos, always about what Chaos really was but the beast had always given the same reply.

"I am discord, destruction, and despair. A great fiend born of misery but a harbinger of peace and change," to which Vincent had always replied with a question of Chaos' power "My power stretches far beyond your comprehension. What you know is but a small piece, for I can alter fate on a whim."

Every conversation with the fiend had been the same cryptic circle of riddles which caused the stubborn former Turk to altogether halt all attempts at understanding the being. He had pondered on the thought of asking the former l'Cie about Chaos, or a great dark fiend, but that would inevitably lead to having to reveal his dark and immensely powerful burden. Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he slowly fell to his knees and put his gloved hand on the ground.

"I have no idea if this will work, but if it does," he muttered to himself "Aerith, if you can hear me, please tell Cloud and the others that I am safe and well. And please do something to cheer up Vanille as I imagine she can not be having an easy time with this."

Getting back to his feet, he released most of his hold on Chaos, letting his body be transformed. With a flap of his massive black and red wings, he soared into the air. Using the power at Chaos' disposal, he stretched the wings out to his sides, remaining in the air, and raced off towards New Bodhum at speeds no living creature could travel. As he approached the outskirts of the town, he lowered his altitude until he could reach down and touch the ground and remained out of sight. Just outside the perimeter fence, in an area he knew to be a blind spot in the security at this particular time, he transformed back into Vincent and with a quick look around, leaped over the fence with little effort.

Peacefully and silently making his way back to the CETRA base, he found himself walking towards the Farron/Yun/Estheim residence. He knocked lightly on the door when he reached the stoop and almost within seconds the door was opening, revealing a very surprised Fang.

"Where the hell you been?" Fang laughed more than threatened after recovering from seeing Vincent on the stoop "It's kinda been a while."

"I was coping with the facts," Vincent expertly lied, a mandatory skill to learn in the Turks. Fang nodded and smirked as she moved to invite Vincent in.

"So bottles or breasts?" Fang asked with a smirk.

"Excuse me?" Vincent reply.

"Hard drinking or rough sex? Two most common ways people deal with upsetting news."

"Neither. I just had to mull things over."

"Vincent?" Lightning asked as she came down the stairs, sounding more than bewildered. It was obvious that she never expected to see the gunslinger so early.

"I came by to ask about something," he stated "Do any of you know anything about a powerful, likely legendary, fiend?" Fang chuckled cheerfully.

"There are a lot of those on Gran Pulse, Vinnie. Want to narrow it down a bit?"

"It's related to the end of the world," Vincent stated. Fang and Lightning looked to each other before Lightning responded.

"Why do you want to know?"

"There are many writings about it in the future and I thought one of you might be able to shed more light on the subject."

"I assume you're talking about Ragnarok," Fang replied. That told Vincent all he needed to know. Many times he had seen Lucrecia working on her Omega and Chaos thesis, and she had told him that Chaos was a very rough translation of the Cetra word Ragnarok. The gunslinger glanced over at the clock on the wall.

"Mind if I get a ride to the base with you, Lightning?" the pinkette shook her head "We'll discuss this _Ragnarok_ later, Fang. If you don't mind."

"Not at all, Vinnie."

The ride to the CETRA base with Lightning was quiet, going into the base was quiet, but the base itself was just as loud as usual. Lighting went to her office and Vincent proceeded to the lab for the DNA results. When he arrived, the sample was still being tested so he decided to wait for it, making sure to stay out of the way of the lab techs. The gunslinger quickly grew bored and impatient since he had filed a report on the confrontation immediately after delivering the blood sample, so Amodar would already know about the test. After a long two hours of waiting, the machine let out a shrill beep and the results were displayed on the connected terminal. Vincent walked over to the terminal and refused to believe his eyes. He made it print out the results and dismissed the window, ensuring the lab techs would not see it. As he left, he told them to test the sample two more times and to not compare the results with the database.

When he told Amodar, the officer sat stunned for several minutes. Neither of the men could or even wanted to believe what the machine had said but they could not argue with it. Vincent volunteered to go deal with the person in question but Amodar refused him and had stated that it should be him. Regardless of what was said, Vincent followed Amodar out of his office. They gathered five other officers on their way through the halls and Amodar stopped at Lightning's office. He knocked softly then opened the door.

"Lightning? Could you come here for a sec?" he asked in his friendly tone. Lightning got up from her desk and walked over. She noticed Vincent standing to side, his hand resting on his gun. As she left her office she also saw the other officers surrounding the area.

"Sir, what is this about?" she was growing increasingly suspicious as each second passed. She felt someone grab her arms and pull them behind her before putting cuffs on her wrists.

"Lightning Farron, you are under arrest for the physical assault of Vincent Valentine and the murders of," Amodar listed only the most recent victims before reading her legal rights.

Lightning numbly accepted what was happening, she knew it was stupid to resist but could not believe she was being blamed for the atrocities. It was not possible for her to be the suspect, she did not commit any sort of crime and much less, she obviously did not have silver hair or bright red eyes. Then again, the CETRA investigators would see those physical traits as a wig and custom contact lenses.

The only logical explanation in Lightning's mind, someone was trying very hard to frame her.

**Yeah, it's a bit shorter than the last chapter, but I think its just as good.**

**Please leave a review.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Do you really think she did it?" a tall muscular man with short blonde hair, stubble for facial hair, blue eyes, and a darker blue uniform, asked the man with a red cape standing next to him.

"Not my place to say," Vincent replied flatly. During his days as a Turk, anyone he was sent after was already proven guilty and given a death sentence. Anyone that was pursued or apprehended by the Turks was guilty, no question.

"Well I think she's being framed," The blonde said back as he crossed his arms. The man speaking to Vincent was none other than Snow Villiers, former l'Cie, married to Serah Farron-Villiers, Officer of the Law Enforcement branch of CETRA.

"We found her with DNA evidence, how could someone get her blood inside them?" Vincent asked, making sure to sound skeptical. He already had an answer for his question, multiple in fact, but Hojo and Shinra still had a long time before they were born.

"Remember what we told you about Barthandelus?" Snow asked.

"Clearly," Vincent already knew what being was imitating Lightning but he was unable to grasp the reason. Jenova killed and replaced Cetra people of high standing to sabotage the infrastructure of the society to severely decrease the ability to fight. Then again, Vincent mused, who knows how much of that was just rumors?

The two men went back to watching Lightning through the two way mirror. The pinkette was calmly sitting in the interview, or interrogation, room waiting for an officer to come question her. Because of their connection to Lightning, Vincent, Snow, and Amodar were not allowed to question her and were no longer allowed to take part in the investigation. That fact greatly agitated Snow because he wanted to prove her innocence more than anything at the moment.

"I know Lightning, very well," Snow suddenly said "There is no way she would do something like this."

"You'd be surprised at what people are capable of hiding," Vincent reply without emotion.

"Who's side are you on?" Snow was extremely insulted by the gunslingers statement.

At that moment, Vincent succumb to a frightening epiphany. He was still a Turk. He had tried to escape what he had been but it was still there inside him. The gunslinger still did not trust anyone and if it came down to it, he would not hesitate in putting a bullet in the skull of a friend. Every Turk had been trained to trust no one, especially the other Turks because each one of them were tailored to be assassins and had all sense of morality forcibly removed through intense near psychological torture. But even then, most Turks grew to be friends, Vincent had even heard of some becoming lovers, getting married, or developing a relationship with a non-Turk. However, Turks that developed relationships always vanished, Shinra saw to that.

"Justice," Vincent calmly answered Snow before starting to turn away.

"Snow!" Serah called out the moment before Vincent could leave "I got your call," the younger pinkette said as she walked into the giant blonde's arms "Why would they arrest Lightning?" it was obvious that Serah was close to tears.

"She's being framed, baby," Snow cooed, gently kissing the top of Serah's head.

Out of nowhere, a sharp pain tore its way through Vincent's body. The gunslinger just barely managed to keep his composure and he promptly set off from his place by the window. He kept a steady pace until he was outside and found the closest dark alley. Once he was fully enveloped by the shadows another pain wracked his body making him cry out, he forced himself to stay quiet, his knees buckle, and his arms tremble. The pain was identical to when the Protomateria had been taken from him and his control over Chaos weakened.

"_Chaos, what is going on?_" Vincent thought in order to reach into the depths of his mind to contact the dark beast and was surprised at how swift Chaos' response was.

"Soon, the calamity is soon. The virgin deity shall be born," Chaos almost sounded cheerful, which was far more than concerning.

"_What? Isn't Jenova the calamity?_" Vincent asked the cryptic voice.

"Thou shalt witness the truth about lies embodied," Chaos replied, leaving Vincent even further confused.

All of a sudden Chaos was silent and the pain vanished, Vincent regaining control of the beast. He remained on the ground for several minutes, trying to decode Chaos' new riddles. Quickly giving up, he climbed back onto his feet and made his way back to the CETRA base and then the interrogation room. There he saw Fang, Hope, Sazh, and Dajh gathered with Snow and Serah, all quietly talking. Making his way to the group, he remained off to the side not wanting to interrupt or be part of their conversation.

The door to the interrogation room opened and the officer that had been questioning Lightning stepped out partially.

"Serah?" He asked to get her attention, the pinkette turned to face him "Your sister would like to talk to you. Could the rest of you wait down the hall?" Serah entered the room and the others of the group walked away. When they were out of earshot, the officer turned to Vincent, who had not moved "You too, Valentine."

"I have no personal connection to Lieutenant Farron and I want to put away this killer." Vincent reply simply.

"Very well," the officer said in defeat and joined Vincent in watching the sisters through the window. The gunslinger reached over and activated the intercom, allowing them to hear what was being said in the interrogation room "What are you doing?" the officer asked when he saw what Vincent was doing.

"Serah is not a lawyer, nor did Lightning ask for one. She knows her rights and listening in right now is perfectly legal," Vincent responded.

"Murder?" Serah said in a harsh whisper.

"Almost two dozen, actually," Lightning corrected as she stood up and looked out the window, opposite of the two-way mirror and Serah could not believe how calm her older sister was being about the situation.

"How are you so calm about all this, Light?" Serah was close to tears.

"I didn't do it. I have no idea how but I'm being framed."

"Why? And who would do this?" Serah almost shouted.

"Serah, I'm one of the l'Cie killed Orphan," Lightning pointed out "Anyone in New Eden would want me dead or in prison. More likely dead. Especially Primarch Darius which is who I would say is doing this."

"But why wait so long? And no offense, but why go through all this trouble? Wouldn't it be easier to just, I dunno, shoot you?" Serah had great difficulty asking those questions and further difficulty forcing her mind to not conjure images of her sister being shot. Lightning shifted uncomfortably, not because of Serah's questions, but because she could feel Vincent's emotionless piercing gaze on her.

"I don't know, Serah. It will hurt moral more if New Bodhum has to sentence their hero to death?" Lightning mused as she returned to her chair.

Vincent also mulled over Lightning's words. The gunslinger decided that if he was not going to get answers from investigating the incident, or asking the enigmatic entity he hosted, he would seek out one of the so called fal'Cie he kept hearing about. It was not until long after nightfall that an opportunity to slip away presented itself to the gunslinger. Once again calling on Chaos, Vincent spread his wings and rocketed towards the last known coordinates of the fal'Cie Titan.

It was far more than easy to locate the mountainous being. Vincent flew down towards the giant fal'Cie and stopped just short of landing on its nose. Titan turned its colossal head to focus one enormous eye and the winged being.

"Chaos," A deep rumbling voice sounded inside Vincent's skull "Your presence would dictate that it has begun."

"What has begun?" Vincent asked, shouting to the fal'Cie.

"The Calamity," Titan replied calmly.

"You know about it?"

"All fal'Cie have known since our birth."

"Who is it?"

"One of the seven that gave Orphan what they sought."

"Seven?" Vincent was growing increasingly confused.

"The catalyst and the six warriors."

Once again, everything fell into place and became perfectly clear to the gunslinger. One of the former l'Cie, excluding Vanille, was going to become Jenova. For a moment Vincent thought the list was narrowed down to Lightning, Serah, or Fang but the small fact of Jenova posses the ability shapeshift was enough to disprove Vincent's thoughts. But there was one other question on Vincent's mind.

"How do you know Chaos?"

"Every being knows Chaos."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Chaos always has been, always will be." Deciding not to get sucked into another circle of riddles, Vincent turned and sped off back to New Bodhum.

He was both glad and depressed to know where Jenova came from.

* * *

Vanille had stopped crying several minutes ago but she remained in the bathroom stall waiting for her red face to return to normal. The occasional sniffle still worked its way out of her but the tears had stopped falling. Glancing downwards, she noticed two orange paws waiting on the other side of the door to the stall.

"Nanaki? How long have you been there?" Vanille asked the waiting beast.

"Long enough, miss Dia," Nanaki replied quietly "Take your time to recover from that trauma. I will be here when you are ready."

"But..." Vanille knew she was going to sound foolish for saying this "This is the girls washroom..." Nanaki made a noise and Vanille could swear it was a chuckle.

"Worry not, few here are aware that I posses the ability to speak," Vanille heard the beast lay down as he spoke.

Vanille opened the door and squatted to scratch Nanaki's head, something only Vanille, Yuffie, Shelke, were allowed to do when no one else was around. The redhead found her way back to the large room with the artifacts, the beast at her side. She purposely avoided the corner with Fang's spear but it did not make it any easier to live with the knowledge of it being there. Vanille sat at a workstation with one of the other WRO members assigned to cataloging the artifacts and Nanaki lay down beside her. She watched the man work and attempted to help whenever she could, which was not very often.

A man and a woman in deep conversation walked by the table Vanille was seated at and she happened to notice the metal box the man was carrying. It looked familiar but was far too weather damaged to get a clear picture of what it might be. She watched the duo walk over to the corner she was avoiding and the man gently placed the box on the table before the duo turned and started walking back towards the door they entered through.

The redhead stood up and made her way over to the Village Artifacts, careful to keep the spear in her blind spot, with Nanaki on her heels. When she had the box in her hands, it instantly became obvious as to what the object actually was.

"Bhakti!" Vanille shouted cheerfully, grabbing the attention of the others in the room.

It took some time to remove the ancient dirt and dust but she was able to find the small robot's switch. A barely audible whirring lifted Vanille's spirits higher than they had ever been since she woke up. With an electric snap and some creaking, the robot came to life, extending its wheels and lifting the cameras it had for eyes. Once it was fully active, Bhakti did not react to Vanille, instead, it's eyes lit up and projected an image onto the opposite wall making everyone in the room fall dead silent.

Turning to the image, Vanille was met with a seven foot image of Fang from the waist up. She had the same black halter top but the sari was gone, her hair was no different, but her right arm was in a sling and she was supporting herself with her spear. Behind the Huntress that Vanille had known as a sister, were massive columns of smoke, objects that Vanille recognized as Cocoon gunships flying around, destroyed and burning Cocoon style buildings, and the backdrop was Cocoon resting at the apex of the massive crystal pillar, a clear blue sky giving it a beautiful and serene glow in opposition to the obvious war zone below it. A moment later, audio started coming from Bhakti and everyone in the room could hear gunfire, explosions, and alarms in the background. Fang then hobbled away from the camera, or Bhakti, and sat down between three others.

On Fang's right was a dark skinned man Vanille almost did not recognize as Sazh. His afro had been cut short, the pilot's uniform was dirty and tattered, he had a full beard, and there was no spark in his eyes. Sazh was looking at a photo and Vanille, plus the other people in the room, could see a tear roll down his dirt stained face. On Fang's left was the large blond man Vanille immediately recognized as Snow. However, he was wearing an equally dirty and tattered military uniform, had an assault rifle resting against his shoulder, and Vanille was just able to make out three necklaces. The pendant with a cat on it, and two of the silver necklace he had been wearing during their l'Cie journey. Beside him was a blond man in a filthy and shredded suit. Vanille did not recognize the man but the weapon he had on his lap looked very similar to Lightning's.

"Vanille," Fang started after taking a deep breath "We all wished for a long time that you woke up with us but now we hope you never do," Vanille was dumbfounded, more so by Fang's tone. There was no humor, no life in her voice. The redhead had always known Fang to have that special tone of hers in even the worst of scenarios, now she just sounded broken "Something..." Fang tried to continue but seemed to drift into thought.

"Something terrible happened," Snow spoke up "The others are gone. Team NORA, Lightning, Serah, Hope, Dajh... We've lost them all," Snow sounded just as broken and devoid of life as Fang. He took a deep breath before continuing "We have no idea what happened. One day we're living normally, waiting for you and then... this," Snow motioned to the devastating scene behind him "We doubt you'll ever get this message but we have nothing else to hope for," Snow eyes drifted to his rifle, giving it a look that implied he was considering using it on himself.

"If by some miracle you get this," Fang started again in that heartbreaking tone "Probably won't because you're up in Cocoon's pillar and we're down in Oerba, I just want to tell you, don't you dare cry. You have done enough of that, you're not a pitiful little girl anymore," Vanille could swear she heard spite or outright hatred in Fang's voice "You are a grown woman and you have to live for you now. Forget about the rest of us and move on, don't even think about the good times, it will only make things harder."

Before anyone else could speak, a flash of light blossomed from Cocoon's pillar and the crystal column erupted outwards. The shattering of the crystal could be clearly heard on the recording but Vanille was more focused on Cocoon starting to fall. It slowly rotated as it fell, the gaping hole being aimed skywards as the heavier side of Cocoon lead the dive. Finally, the thunderous crash of the hollow world making contact with Gran Pulse, which in turn spawned a towering shock wave of dirt and dust. It raced over the horizon and towards the camera at an incredible speed. When the wall of debris met the camera, it blacked out for a moment, came back partially with the ground at the top of the frame, blacked out once again, but came back long enough to get a shot of Fang grabbing it and switching it off.

Vanille was glad that she had been the only one with the ability to understand what had been said on the recording but the footage itself was enough to cause an uproar among the present WRO members. All of them were shouting orders at each other about who to call, what to do, and who to tell about the footage. The redhead slowly sunk back into her chair and barely noticed the concerned look Nanaki was giving her. She reached out and scratched his head but Nanaki had a gut feeling telling nothing good was going to come out of this.

**I apologize for my writers block. Please leave a review.**


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